Political Transitions from a Human Rights Perspective: Experiences and Challenges

"Political Transitions from a Human Rights Perspective: Experiences and Challenges"

Objectives

This Forum takes place within the framework of FIDH’s International Congress, a major event, bringing together human rights defenders from FIDH’s 164 member organisations and other partners from all over the world, every three years.

FIDH has chosen to hold this event in Turkey, and dedicate it to the issue of viewing political transition from a human rights perspective. Turkey is currently at a crossroads, with peace negotiations under way with representatives of the Kurdish people, after many years of bloody conflict. Turkey is also closely observed by governments in Middle East and North Africa, who have themselves only recently assumed power and are currently undergoing the process of political transition.

The Forum will foster exchange between human rights defenders and organisations from over one hundred countries. Participants will debate challenging impunity, strengthening justice, supporting institutions and NGOs, the place of religion, the role of women as drivers for transition, the rights of minorities, the promotion of economic and social rights, and the role of private businesses and international financial institutions in transition periods. Alliances will be developed and strategies for action identified on these key challenges.

As a journalist and author, Souhayr Belhassen has always aspired to « give voice to the voiceless », whether it be through activities in her profession or through her involvement with human rights. As a correspondent for Reuters and Jeune Afrique, she was the first in 1978 to highlight in the columns of Jeune Afrique, the existence of a strong Islamist element in Tunisia. But her most important contribution was leading a campaign for the Ligue tunisienne de défense des droits de l’Homme (LTDH), to save 18 young Tunisians who had been condemned to death for having taken part in the bread riots of 28 January 1984.
As the author of Bourguiba, one of the benchmark biographies on the former Tunisian leader (co-written with Sophie Bessis), she saw her book banned in Tunisia under Bourguiba’s rule. As an active member of Association tunisienne des femmes démocrates (ATFD) since its inception in, Souhayr Belhassen has always made women’s rights central in her fight for human rights. Her work Femmes du Maghreb (also written with Sophie Bessis), describes the plight of women in the countries of her region, including her own.
In 1993, in a petition supporting Algerian women, Souhayr Belhassen denounced the shameful silence of the Tunisian regime regarding its neighbour’s situation, and for using the alibi that the Tunisians’ relatively privileged position prevented them from taking action. As a result of this petition, she was expelled from Tunisia and lived in exile for five years.
When Souhayr Belhassen returned to Tunis, she founded a weekly cultural magazine the “7sur7” which lasted for only a short time. In 1998, Tunisian authorities managed to block outside financing for the « 7sur7 », causing it to become bankrupt.
Under Ben Ali’s dictatorship, Souhayr Belhassen, like many Tunisian defenders of human rights, was constantly harassed for her activism (attacks, phone tapping, being followed, mail surveillance, etc.) In spite of all that, this tireless fighter for basic human rights in her country remains involved in many other battles on the international front.
Elected vice-president of the La Ligue tunisienne des droits de l’Homme (LTDH) in 2000, Souhayr Belhassen joined the International Board of the Fédération internationale des ligues des droits de l’Homme (FIDH) in 2004, at the Quito Congress. She became President of FIDH in April 2007, at the Lisbon Congress and was re-elected in 2010 at the Yerevan Congress.
As head of FIDH, Souhayr Belhassen is making the rights of migrants and of women among the top priorities of the organisation. In this context, FIDH is launching two important campaigns for the protection of women’s rights in the Arab region and in Sub-Saharan Africa. FIDH is also making inroads through its presence and activities in Asia and in Eastern Europe. An office was opened in Bangkok in 2010, and Souhayr Belhassen conducted several missions in the area, notably in Cambodia. The 37th FIDH Congress held in Yerevan (Armenia) in 2010, marked, among other things, the beginning of FIDH activities in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.Öztürk Türkdoğan, Chair of the Human Rights Association (İHD)

Türkdoğan, was born in Kars Province in 1969, graduated from Ankara University, Law Faculty in 1994. He had been working as a medical assistant during his studentship. Türkdoğan has been working as a lawyer since 1998 and he had been the counsellor the Confederation of Public Employees Trade Unions (KESK) between 2002 and 2009 and he is now the counsellor of the Health and Social Workers’ Trade Union (SES). He is a member of the Founder Executive Board of the KESK which had been founded on 7 November 1995.
He has been a member of the Executive Board of the Human Rights Association (IHD) since 2002 and he is the chairperson of the IHD since 2008.
He has been the spokesperson of the Coalition of International Criminal Court (CICC) since 2006.
He has been a member of the Executive Board of the Human Rights Joint Platform (IHOP) since 2008.
He is also a member of the Contemporary Lawyers Association (ÇHD).Sang-Hyun Song, President of the International Criminal Court

Lawyer, academic and judge ; Shirin Ebadi is the co-founder of the Human Rights Defence Centre and the Association for the Support of Children’s Rights, both in Iran. Shirin Ebadi received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003 for her work in championing human rights and particularly the rights of women, children and political prisoners in Iran. In 2006, together with fellow Nobel laureate Jody Williams, she launched the Nobel Women’s Initiative.
She was Iran’s first woman judge and the first woman to become President of the Tehran City Court. Like other Iranian women, she was dismissed from office after the Islamic Revolution of February 1979 when women were forbidden to serve as judges. She then became a clerk at the very court of which she had been president. Having taken early retirement, Ms Ebadi obtained a licence to practise law in 1992. She represents political dissidents, which has led to her arrest on several occasions.Stavros Lambrinidis, European Union Special Representative for Human Rights

++++New power balance: actors for the future and challenges ahead - Keynote Speeches

Ahmet Insel, Political Scientist, Galatasaray University, Istanbul

Ahmet Insel, born in 1955 in Istanbul, graduated in economy at Panthéon-Sorbonne University in Paris. He was Director, then Vice-president, of the department of economy of that university. Since 2002, Ahmet Insel teaches at Galatazaray University in Istanbul. He is one of the founding members of the MAUSS periodical (French acronym for Anti-Utilitarist Movement in Social Sciences), published by La Découverte.

In addition to his academic activities, Ahmet Insel is member of the editorial committee of publisher Iletisim and of the monthly journal Birikim. He is also columnist in the daily Turkish newspaper Radikal.

Session 1: Institutional reforms for the Rule of Law
Moderator: Mabassa Fall, FIDH Permanent Representative to the African Union

14:30-15:15 Introductory addresses

• Priorities for establishing long-lasting rule of law in countries in transitionLuis Guillermo Pérez Casas, Secretary General of FIDH

Luis Guillermo Pérez is a lawyer graduated from the National University of Colombia, member of Colectivo de Abogados "José Alvear Restrepo" - CAJAR - since 1987, Secretary General of FIDH since 2004, post-graduated in international relations from Externado University in Colombia in 1991 and in political sciences from Bordeaux University in 1993. Luis Guillermo represented CAJAR before the European Union in Brussels, the International Criminal Court in The Hague, and the United Nations in Geneva. He was Executive Secretary of the Copenhague Initiative for Central America and Mexico - CIFCA - for eight years, which allowed him to specialize on development cooperation and the impact of trade agreements on human rights. Luis represented FIDH at the International Council of the World Social Forum.
Luis Guillermo was forced into exile twice, and had to shelter his family out of the country. His relatives had been repeatedly threatened with death because he had represented victims of crimes against humanity in the framework of massacres like Mapiripán or la Rochela, or for his work with the ICC. He currently represents FIDH as a civil party in the proceedings against the former President of Colombia, Älvaro Uribe Vélez, before the Commission of enquiry of the House of Representatives and against other highy level members of his government prosecuted for criminal persecution of human rights defenders, judges, journalists, academics and political opponents.
• Which leverages to encourage reforms in repressive contexts
<blocTolekan Ismaïlova, Chairperson of Human Rights Movement Bir Duino-Kyrgyzstan (Kyrghizistan)

Tolekan Ismailova is the founder of the NGO Forum which was instrumental in the adoption of the first Law "On formation of NGOs" in 1999, which contributed to the development of civil society in the country. Tolekan is one of the founders of the Coalition "For Democracy and Civil Society", bringing together hundreds of NGOs and active citizens for democratic and transparent elections, and she was the first President of the Coalition, from 1998 to 2002. This Coalition held a large-scale program of civic education and monitored the election. As a result, independent candidates were elected to the Parliament of the Kyrgyz Republic for the first time in the history of the country.

In May 2000, "Citizens against corruption» was established, bringing together on its platform of demands more than 65,000 active citizens. "Citizens against corruption" was awarded a Prize by the French Republic in 2009. It has grown today in the "Human Rights Movement: Bir Duino-Kyrgyzstan" http://www.anticorruption.kg

Tolekan and her family have been several times subjected to administrative arrest and harassment. In September 2012 due to the inclusion of the documentary "I’m gay and, I am a Muslim" in the annual international documentary festival on Human Rights in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, the intelligence agencies declared Tolekan an "extremist and promoter of inter-ethnic and inter-religious conflicts".

• Elections during transition: the experience of TunisiaKamel Jendoubi, Former President of Tunisia’s Independent Higher Authority for the Elections

Kamel Jendoubi is a long-term campaigner for human rights in Tunisia, which saw him forced into exile for 17 years.
Kamel Jendoubi was one of the founders and later the Chairman of the Committee for the Respect of Freedom and Human Rights in Tunisia, which was founded in Paris in 1996. He also helped set up the Federation of Tunisians for a Two Banks Citizenship (FTCR). He has been a president of the Euro-Mediterannean Human Rights Network and of the Cairo Institute of Human Rights Studies.
After the collapse of the Ben Ali regime, Kamel Jendoubi was able to return to Tunisia where he was appointed head of the Independent Higher Authority of the Elections, the Tunisian body tasked with organizing the election of a Constituent Assembly in October 2011.

15:15-16:00 Debate, with presentations from the floor
• Strategies for working under severe restrictions in Belarus (Viasna)
• How to support forces for change inside China (HRIC)
• The role of sanctions in the transition in Zimbabwe (Zimrights)

16:00-16:15 Coffee break

SESSION 2: Reform of Justice for the Rule of Law
Moderator: Amina Bouayach, FIDH Vice President (Morocco)

16:15-17:00 Introductory addresses
• From transitional justice to justice in transitionSidiki Kaba, Honorary President of the FIDH

In 2001, Senegalese lawyer Sidiki Kaba became the first African to be elected President of the FIDH. He had previously been FIDH permanent representative to the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (CADHP) in Banjul in 1992 and Vice-President of the FIDH in 1997.
He is a graduate of the universities of Abidjan and Dakar where he took degrees in Law, Philosophy and French and a master’s degree in Business Law. Admitted to the Dakar Bar in 1980, he served as an elected member of the bar council from 1985 – 2000.
He was President of the National Organization for Human Rights (ONDH) from 1995 – 2000, having first served as vice-president. He is a member of several African NGOs, including the Union of Lawyers, the Inter-African Human Rights Union (UIDH), the African Centre for Human Rights and Democracy Studies (ACDHRS) and the African Centre for the Prevention and Resolution of Conflicts (CAPREC).
He has acted as the lawyer for several leading African figures, including former Prime Minister, now President of Cote d’Ivoire Alassane Ouattara, former Prime Minister of Senegal Idrissa Seck, victims of torture in Chad against the country’s former dictator, President Hissene Habré, human rights activists and members of the opposition in Burkino Faso in the case of murdered journalist Norbert Zongo, former leader of the opposition and now President of Guinea Alpha Condé and member of the opposition and former President of Cote d’Ivoire Laurent Gbagbo.
• Which guarantees for an independent judiciary?Gastón Chillier, Executive Director of CELS

Gastón Chillier is the Executive Director of the Center for Social and Legal Studies (CELS) since 2006. Before assuming the direction of CELS, he was a Senior Associate in Human Rights and Security in the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) between 2003 and 2005. Between 2001 and 2003 he was the director of the program for Latin America of Global Rights. From 1994 and 1998, before his post graduate studies, he was a legal specialist in police violence at CELS.
Currently he is Co – President of the INCLO, the International Network of Civil Liberties Organizations. He is a board member of the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL). He is a lawyer from the University of Buenos Aires and has an LLM in International Law and Human Rights by the Faculty of Law of Notre Dame University, USA.
• How to reform the security sectorNavaz Kotwal

Navaz Kotwal is Project Coordinator with the Access to Justice Programme of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), an international NGO based in New Delhi, which works to guarantee human rights in the Commonwealth countries. Navaz initially joined as a volunteer, helping Gujarat riot victims gain access to legal aid. She has achieved considerable success in securing justice for the poor and marginalized. She currently heads a team of professionals working on police reforms and access to justice with a specific focus on India, South Asia and the countries of East Africa. She has written numerous newspaper articles, books and institutional publications on India’s criminal justice system.

17:00-18:30 Debate, with presentations from the floor
• Transition in Peru, obstacles and good practices (APRODEH)
• Transitional Justice in Tunisia: overview and perspectives (FIDH Tunis)

Chongguo was born in China, where he was first a peasant farmer and then a worker at the time of the Cultural Revolution. He later became a professor of philosophy. He played an active part in the student movement in 1989 and was in Beijing on 4 June, the day of the Tienanmen Square massacre. He managed to flee to Hong Kong and from there to France where he spent many years in exile.
He lived in Paris for 20 years in cramped and basic accommodation, earning a pittance. It was there that he raised his soon while continuing the struggle for workers’ rights in China. Cai Chongguo is known throughout the world for his battle to secure independent representation for China’s working class. He has worked for many years for China Labour Bulletin, an organization based in Hong Kong where it acts as a link to European workers’ and trade union organizations. Chongguo left France for Hong Kong in 2009, where is now deputy director of China Labour Bulletin. He has a much-followed account on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent to Twitter.
• Human rights, a tool for social demandsJacob van Garderen, National Director of Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR), South Africa

An independent NGO with a 34-year track record of using the law as a positive instrument for change and to deepen the democratization of South African society. To this end, it provides free legal services to vulnerable, marginalized and indigent individuals and communities, both non-national and South African, who are victims of unlawful infringements of their constitutional rights.
Jacob is responsible for the overall management of the organization and its six offices and programmes on strategic litigation, refugees and migrant rights, land reform, farm workers, housing and environmental rights.
Jacob has earned BCom and LLB degrees from the University of Pretoria. He was admitted as an advocate in 2003 and has since been a member of the Johannesburg Bar. Jacob has written and lectured extensively on refugee law and practice.
• The impact of the economic and financial crisis in Europe on human rights and democracyDimitris Christopoulos, vice-President of the Hellenic League for Human Rights

Dimitris Christopoulos chaired the board of the Hellenic League for Human Rights from 2003 – 2011 and remains its vice-president. During this period, the Hellenic League for Human Rights acquired the status of a prestigious human rights association consulted by the media, political parties, NGOs and international organizations operating in Greece. Mr. Christopoulos is frequently interviewed by international and Greek media and writes regularly in the Greek press, contributing to the promotion of a culture of human rights awareness in Greece, particularly in the context of the country’s current financial crisis.
He is an associate professor at Athens Panteion University, where he teaches public law and human rights, focusing on migration, minorities and citizenship. His latest publication, “Who is a Greek Citizen?” traces the status of Greek nationality from the creation of the Modern Greek state to the present time.

15:15-15:45 Debate, with presentations from the floor
• Ecuador: role of peasants and indigenous people in the transition (CEDHU)
• How to promote economic and social rights of migrants in Russia (ADC Memorial)

15:45-16:00: Coffee break

SESSION 2: The role of economic and financial actors during political transition
Moderator: Yusuf Alatas, FIDH Vice President (Turkey)

16:00-16:30: Introductory addresses
• Foreign investments and international trade: obstacle or vector for political transitionsOlivier De Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food (Belgium)

Olivier De Schutter has been engaged in the defence of human rights for many years, beginning in 1992 when he became a member of the Belgian League of Human Rights. As a conscientious objector, he set up the FIDH office in Brussels in charge of representing the FIDH and its member organizations in the European Union.
Mr. De Schutter served as a Secretary General of the FIDH in charge of globalization and human rights from 2004 –2008. He was appointed Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food by the UN Human Rights Council in 2008. He has produced numerous reports in that capacity, which are now important works of reference for all actors involved in promoting the right to food (in areas such as agroecology, land rights, the role of agribusiness, the impact of trade agreements on the right to food, etc).
He is Professor of Law at the University of Louvain (UCL) and teaches at several universities, including New York University and Columbia University.
• Bringing corporations to accountAlirio Uribe Muñoz, lawyer

Alirio Uribe is a Colombian lawyer with a long-standing commitment to defending the rights of his country’s displaced populations, indigenous peoples, peasant farmers and trade unionists. He has been president and remains a member of the Colectivo de Abogados Jose Alvear Restrepo, a group of lawyers committed to human rights in Colombia. The collective came into being in the 1980s.
Alirio Uribe Muñoz has been particularly active in cases involving the participation of government-backed paramilitary groups in political assassinations, disappearances and the forced displacement of hundreds of thousands of Colombians. At the end of the 1990s, these groups stepped up their killing of trade unionists, human rights defenders, peasant farmers and opposition figures. Alirio received the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders in 2003.

Individual liberties, equal rights for all and their role in the strengthening of the rule of law

Translation: Arabic, English, French, Russian, Spanish, Turkish

Room Marmara

Moderator: Dan Van Raemdonck, FIDH VicePresident (Belgium)

Introductory addresses
• Religion, the public sphere and the rule of lawAsma Jahangiri, vice-President of the FIDH (Pakistan)

Asma Jahangir is a Pakistani lawyer, who has long been involved in defending human rights. She is a founder member and has chaired the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), an independent non-governmental organization that is well-known in Pakistan and abroad. Asma Jahangir is also the first woman to have been President of the Supreme Court Bar Association of Pakistan at a time when the bar’s independence was of fundamental importance to the future of the country. Asma Jahangir has always spoken out for the rights of women, religious minorities and workers in her country, which has led to death threats on numerous occasions.
Asma Jahangir has also had an impressive international career. She has been United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions (1998-2004) and on Freedom of Religion and Belief (2004-2010). In 2006, she was appointed a member of the United Nations International Commission of Inquiry on Darfur (Sudan). She has been awarded several prestigious prizes (Unesco, Unifem, Ramon Magsaysay Award, etc).
• Women drivers of transitions: for which rights?Sophie Bessis, Deputy Secretary General of the FIDH (Tunisia)

A history graduate, Sophie Bessis was editor-in-chief of several specialist magazines and reviews (Ferida, Afrique agriculture, Jeune Afrique, Vivre Autrement, Le Courrier de l’Unesco...) before becoming an advisor to international organizations such as Unicef and Unesco.
She has taught North-South relations at the National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations (INALCO) in Paris and at the Political Science Department of University Paris I. She was a member of the High Council for International Cooperation from 2000 –2001.
She is the author of a number of works on the Maghreb, development and women. She is currently head of research at the Institute of International and Strategic Relations (IRIS).
• Minority rights: universalism or communitarianism?Nancy Yanez Fuenzalida, Co-director, Observadorio Ciudadano, Chile

Nancy Yanez Fuenzalida is a lawyer with a master’s degree in law from Notre Dame University in the United States. She is Professor of Legal Anthropology at the University of Chile Law Faculty and teaches on the human rights training programme for indigenous peoples at the Pedro Arrupe Human Rights Institute of the University of Deusto in Bilbao, Spain. The programme is run in collaboration with the Office of the United Nations High Commissariat for Human Rights. An expert in the rights of indigenous peoples and rights linked to land, natural resources and the right to water, Nancy has co-authored a variety of works on the rights of indigenous peoples in Chile.

Debate, with presentations from the floor
• Strategies to defend minorities in Egypt (EIPR)
• Litigation for Roma and Travellers’ rights in Belgium (LTDH)
• Discriminatory governance in Mauritania (AMDH)

10:30-10:45: Coffee Break

10:45-12:30: Participants split into three workshops to discuss experiences on building democracy

Presentations: Religion and the public sphere in the USA (CCR) Freedom of expression and religion (LDH France) Religion and conflict in the two Sudans (ACJPS) Freedom of religion and laicism in Turkey, Prof.Dr Bekir Berat Ozipek, Lecturer, International Relations Department, Istanbul Commerce University

Presentations: Promoting the rights of Roma people in Eastern Europe (ADC Memorial, Russia) Democracy and Plurilinguism: : Turkey Experience, Levent Korkut, Member of the Steering Committe of Human Rights Joint Platform (IHOP, Turkey) The experience of indigenous people’s rights in Ecuador (INREDH) How to promote the rights of LGBT in Senegal (LSDH)

Introductory addresses
•What legitimacy for limits to freedom of expression in a democratic society?Vincent Berger, former jurisconsult with the European Court of Human Rights (France)

Born in 1948, Vincent Berger is a French national with a PhD in Law from Université de Paris II - Panthéon-Assas and is a graduate of the Paris Institute of Political Studies. He spent most of his career at the European Court of Human Rights (Council of Europe), where for seven years (until March 2013) he was the legal adviser. His principal role was to ensure the quality and coherency of the jurisprudence, as well as being responsible for the research sections, legal information and equitable satisfaction.
Since 1991, he has been professor at the College of Europe (Bruges and Varsovy) and has published several works on the jurisprudence of the Cour de Strasbourg and numerous related articles especially on international and European human rights. He is a member of the board of directors of the International Institute for Human Rights, as well as of the Scientific Council of several legal journals. He has recently applied to be member of the Paris bar.
•The experience of trade unions on alliances and partnershipsAlison Tate, Director for External Relations, ITUC

Alison has degrees in economics and political science. She has worked in Australia, South East Asia and the Pacific in trade union, human rights and community development. Alison has expertise in training, organizational development, human and trade union rights, international economics, international trade and investment, sustainable development, migration, labour standards and corporate social responsibility.
Alison has represented Australian trade unions at the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and in other international and intergovernmental fora. She has served as an expert to a number of international NGOs and with the ILO’s Better Work Programme and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank, advising on trade union capacity building and labour standards compliance. The ITUC represents 175 million workers in 156 countries and territories and has 315 national affiliates.
• To expose gongos or (un)civil societyAdilur Rahman Khan, lawyer at the Supreme Court of Bangladesh

Adilur Rahman Khan is a practising lawyer at the Supreme Court of Bangladesh. He is a prominent human rights activist and founding member of the human rights organization, Odhikar, of which he is currently secretary. A former Deputy Attorney General for Bangladesh, he has been a core group member of Law Forum, Regional Coordination Group of the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
As a lawyer, Adilur Rahman Khan has conducted many human rights cases on behalf of persons victimized by the law-enforcement agencies. As a member of the National Committee for the Protection of Fundamental Rights in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, he and three other lawyers were instrumental in securing the release of detainees from the Chittagong Hill Tracts, who had been held for years under the Special Powers Act 1974.
Adilur Rahman Khan is a member of the General Assembly of the OMCT and a member of the Executive Committee of the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (Forum Asia) on behalf of Odhikar. He also represents Odhikar on the Board of Directors of the Asian Network for Free Elections Foundation (ANFREL) and the HURIDOCS International Advisory Council.
Debate, with presentations from the floor
• Freedom of expression in the US (CCR )
• The experience of alliances concerning Uzbekistan (Fiery Hearts Club)

Coffee Break - (15:30-15:45)

15:45-17:15: Participants split into two workshops to exchange about concrete experiences on building democracy.

Experiences presented notably by: Alliances with social movements (MNDH, Brazil) Using social networks to document human rights violations (Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression, SCM) Using social networks for alert and advocacy in Bahrain (BCHR) Role and responsibilities of the media during transition, Nadire Mater, Chair of Bianet (Turkey)

Break - (17:15-17:30)

Plenary: Forum closing session, to highlight the main points and lessons from the Forum

Driss El Yazami was appointed by His Majesty the King as President of Morocco’s National Human Rights Council on 3 March 2011.
Mr. El Yazami was born in Fez, Morocco, in 1952. A defender of human rights who was once a refugee in France, he is a former Vice-President of the French League of Human Rights (LDH), a former Secretary General of the FIDH and a former member of the Executive Committee of the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network. He is currently a representative of Génériques, a French NGO which researches and preserves the history of foreigners and migration in France. He has organized a number of related exhibitions and is editor-in-chief of the half-yearly review Migrance.
Driss El Yazami has been a member of the Equity and Reconciliation Commission (Morocco’s truth and reconciliation commission) and of the Advisory Council on Human Rights (CCDH) founded in 1990, which was ultimately replaced by the National Human Rights Council he now heads.
Since December 2007, he has been President of the Council of the Moroccan Community Abroad (CCME) and a member of Morocco’s Advisory Commission for the Review of the Constitution since 2011.Nazan Üstündağ, Associate Professor of Boğaziçi UniversitySouhayr Belhassen, FIDH president

As a journalist and author, Souhayr Belhassen has always aspired to « give voice to the voiceless », whether it be through activities in her profession or through her involvement with human rights. As a correspondent for Reuters and Jeune Afrique, she was the first in 1978 to highlight in the columns of Jeune Afrique, the existence of a strong Islamist element in Tunisia. But her most important contribution was leading a campaign for the Ligue tunisienne de défense des droits de l’Homme (LTDH), to save 18 young Tunisians who had been condemned to death for having taken part in the bread riots of 28 January 1984.
As the author of Bourguiba, one of the benchmark biographies on the former Tunisian leader (co-written with Sophie Bessis), she saw her book banned in Tunisia under Bourguiba’s rule. As an active member of Association tunisienne des femmes démocrates (ATFD) since its inception in, Souhayr Belhassen has always made women’s rights central in her fight for human rights. Her work Femmes du Maghreb (also written with Sophie Bessis), describes the plight of women in the countries of her region, including her own.
In 1993, in a petition supporting Algerian women, Souhayr Belhassen denounced the shameful silence of the Tunisian regime regarding its neighbour’s situation, and for using the alibi that the Tunisians’ relatively privileged position prevented them from taking action. As a result of this petition, she was expelled from Tunisia and lived in exile for five years.
When Souhayr Belhassen returned to Tunis, she founded a weekly cultural magazine the “7sur7” which lasted for only a short time. In 1998, Tunisian authorities managed to block outside financing for the « 7sur7 », causing it to become bankrupt.
Under Ben Ali’s dictatorship, Souhayr Belhassen, like many Tunisian defenders of human rights, was constantly harassed for her activism (attacks, phone tapping, being followed, mail surveillance, etc.) In spite of all that, this tireless fighter for basic human rights in her country remains involved in many other battles on the international front.
Elected vice-president of the La Ligue tunisienne des droits de l’Homme (LTDH) in 2000, Souhayr Belhassen joined the International Board of the Fédération internationale des ligues des droits de l’Homme (FIDH) in 2004, at the Quito Congress. She became President of FIDH in April 2007, at the Lisbon Congress and was re-elected in 2010 at the Yerevan Congress.
As head of FIDH, Souhayr Belhassen is making the rights of migrants and of women among the top priorities of the organisation. In this context, FIDH is launching two important campaigns for the protection of women’s rights in the Arab region and in Sub-Saharan Africa. FIDH is also making inroads through its presence and activities in Asia and in Eastern Europe. An office was opened in Bangkok in 2010, and Souhayr Belhassen conducted several missions in the area, notably in Cambodia. The 37th FIDH Congress held in Yerevan (Armenia) in 2010, marked, among other things, the beginning of FIDH activities in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.Professor Dr. Sebnem Korur Fincancı

Sebnem Korur Fincancı has been Chair Person of the Foundation of Human Rights of Turkey (TIHV) since 2009 . She has established an international reputation known for her expertise in forensic medicine, torture and rehabilitation. She is one of the guiders of the `Protocol of Istanbul´ that is being used by the United Nations worldwide as a guideline for defining torture. She also is one of the founders of the Society of Forensic Medicine Specialists and had been the Head of the Department of Forensic Medicine, Istanbul University Medical Faculty for 10 years. Since 1990, she also has worked on cases involving torture. In 1996, she worked on behalf of the International Court of War Crimes of the United Nations in Bosnia and there participated in autopsies of mass graves.
She is a council member of IRCT, and also a member of International Forensic Expert Group which is established by IRCT. Finally, Fincancı has organized and participated several trainings on the Protocol of Istanbul in different countries and written numerous documents on this issue.

FIDH members in Turkey

HRFT
The Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (HRFT), established in 1990, is a non governmental and non-profit organisation providing treatment and rehabilitation services for torture survivors and documenting human rights violations in Turkey. The HRFT grew out of the necessity to further promote the prevention of torture in Turkey where grave human rights violations left thousands of people tortured and traumatised. The establishment process of the HRFT was launched by the Human Rights Association together with the Turkish Medical Association and founded in accordance with the Turkish Civil Code.

HRA
The HRA was founded on 17 July 1986, by 98 people, comprising lawyers, journalists, intellectuals, but mainly relatives of political prisoners. The Human Rights Association works on all kind of human rights, but is mainly focused on abuses in Turkey. In 1992, the statute was changed to cover humanitarian aspects as laid out in the Geneva Conventions. Since then the HRA has also criticized human violations of armed groups.

HRA together with a headquarter and 31 branches and representations is the biggest non-governmental human rights organisation and is member of FIDH since 1996, Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network. HRA is also founding member of Human Rights Joint Platform which was established in 2005.